For portable communication devices such as, for example, two-way radios, pagers, radio telephones and the like, the prevailing industry trend is toward greater degrees of consumer market penetration. At the same time, the consumer markets are demanding smaller, faster, cheaper radio products. In recent years, in direct response to these market influences, radio components, amplifiers, filters, integrated circuits (ICs) and the like have experienced radical size reductions. The outcome has been a steady reduction in the size of consumer radio products. Unfortunately, similar gains in the antenna art have lagged well behind. Not surprisingly therefore, one of the largest components in a typical radio today is the antenna.
One relatively recent and promising development in the battle to reduce the size of consumer radio products has been the introduction of micro-strip technology into antenna design; namely, affixing miniature resonators on a dielectric substrate having a ground plane. While this approach has proven useful in applications where radiation efficiency is not extremely critical, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the typical micro-strip antennae is not generally very efficient and may even be loosely characterize as a radio frequency (RF) polluter. If these antennas are going to find their way into consumer based products, however, they must be optimized to reduce RF energy deposition and increase radiation efficiency. Based on the foregoing, it would be extremely advantageous to provide a micro-strip antenna system that is inexpensive, easy to manufacture and well suited for use in the consumer market place.